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Private Well Initiative
Goal: To strengthen the Land Grant Universities’ capacity to deliver an integrated program that educates, empowers and engages private well owners throughout the region to adopt research-based protection practices to protect their drinking water.
Situation:
Organizational: The region contains ten Land Grant Universities, each with strengths and expertise in addressing local and regional issues within the region’s rural and agricultural watersheds. The LGUs must increase collaboration and leveraging of funds, staff and expertise within the LGU system and between federal, state and local partners and stakeholders.
Environmental: The health and livelihood of residents depends on the availability of a safe drinking water supply. About twenty percent of the region’s residents rely on private wells as their source of drinking water. Contaminants present in private drinking water wells can pose a risk to families. However, private wells are not regulated to the extent that public drinking water supplies are, and private well owners are responsible for the quality of their own drinking water. Changing property laws and regulations have created an increased demand for well water testing and educational information. There is more information on the health effects of contaminants and their occurrence throughout the area. The occurrence and distribution of drinking water contaminants are being incorporated into GIS systems and utilized to identify hot spots. This information can be used to better communicate to private well owners the need for regular testing their drinking water supply and what to test for. Throughout the region, there is a migration of residents from the urban corridors to more rural areas where we see an increased reliance of private wells for drinking water purposes. The Private Well Initiative is a multi-state, inter-agency initiative that is a result of regional programming and coordination efforts. It helps to educate private well owners of potential man-made and naturally-occurring contaminant risks to their wells and how to protect against these risks. Achieving long term outcomes will require better education, science, and policy.
External Factors: Assumptions: Integrated research, Extension, and education programs play a role in protecting and managing water resources and getting stakeholders to adopt practices to protect the region’s water resources.
2009 Well Symposium Logic Model
